We turn four today!
Celebrating the many people who are part of this work
We are excited to celebrate our fourth birthday today, August 11th, the official fourth anniversary of our incorporation. As part of our celebration, we’re focusing this newsletter on just some of the many people who have become a part of this work. Together, we’re creating community-governed, mixed-income housing, making neighborhoods even better places to live, working to prevent displacement, and building community power.
First, some 450 people now call Mixed-Income Neighborhood Trusts home, across more than 215 units of housing nationwide.
Or, visually:
Among these residents are:
Ana Ruth Ramirez, a single mother of two in East Boston. She spent years fighting for her right to stay in her neighborhood. As she shared with Next City, “I didn’t know whether to scream, run, I was desperate and I didn’t know what was going to happen to my children.” Ana signed a lease for the first time in eight years after learning her apartment was bought and protected by the East Boston Neighborhood Trust: “When I got the news I said thank you God, because you have heard a petition from my heart that I had, and it was always that my building would be part of the community.”
A mother and her son in Fresno who moved into their new apartment this February with the Central Fresno Neighborhood Trust. The Lowell CDC team shared how this has marked the end of a period of being houseless following domestic violence. This has been too familiar a story of single mothers and children especially finding home in a MINT as a way to stay in their community while escaping domestic violence. “This is our fresh start.”
Further, we estimate many more dozens if not hundreds of people have worked on the homes they live in, from carpenters to plumbers, and property managers to social workers. These include:
Jose Gomez, a local entrepreneur and builder who grew up in the Kendall-Whittier Neighborhood. He founded his home builder company, Marcela Homes, and has now built a brand new home for the Kendall-Whittier Neighborhood Trust. He designed and built a new home responding not only to families’ needs for 3 beds and 2 baths, but also with incredible local knowledge, as members of his family live on the very same block where he just completed the new house.
Our neighborhood partners are also hard at work and bring decades of experience in community development with them. Our neighborhood partners employ some 40 people working on housing, workforce development, and community activism. About 15 within those partners are working directly on their neighborhood trusts.
This includes Kaitlin Garrett who is now the Executive Director of Growing Together in Tulsa and Eva Peña who leads the Kendall Whittier Neighborhood Trust at Growing Together as its Managing Director, seen this week in Tulsa with Kavya and Travis on the Trust Neighborhoods team:
This also includes new additions to these neighborhood partners through the MINT work, like Sarah Rose who has joined Dutchtown South Community Corporation in St. Louis through a generous grant from the James S. McDonnell Foundation to support work on setting up the MINT there.
This also includes Carson Bryant who has brought his professional background in private sector real estate and development into a full time role with the East Colfax Community Collective in Denver and Aurora in the role of MINT Director. He now manages all aspects of the MINT formation including underwriting, resident engagement, fundraising, and relationship building. His management has ensured that the formation of the MINT is intentional and community-informed.
The East Colfax Community Collective team in Denver/Aurora
An additional 48 people now serve on MINT boards and Trust Stewardship Committees, coming together at all hours like this past Thursday evening for the East Colfax Operating Board, or this coming Friday for the East Boston Neighborhood Trust’s Operating Board. These include:
Gloria Ortiz-Fisher, a founding board member for the Northeast Neighborhood Trust, led Westside Housing Corporation, a CDC focused on the Westside Neighborhood in Kansas City, MO that has experienced some of the largest displacement and rise in value in the metro.
Andres del Castillo, an original participant in resident engagement, a longtime organizer with City Life Vida Urbana in East Boston, and now a member of the Trust Stewardship Committee of the East Boston Neighborhood Trust. Andres shared some of what that means to him in the celebration last year in East Boston, “Eastie is our home, our neighborhood. It’s where we watched loved ones pass and mourned. It’s where we’ve held each other through those really hard times. It’s where we’ve gone through one too many quinceañeras. It’s where we’ve celebrated our birthdays. These streets, these buildings are filled with our memories, with our history, and it has been my greatest privilege to fight for that to now continue to be true.”
More from Andres’ speech at EBNT’s celebration.
And Dr. Kirby Randolph (second from left), a Trust Stewardship Committee member for the Northeast Neighborhood Trust, here out at a KC Current soccer game last week with other neighbors from the Northeast courtesy of free tickets provided to NENT alongside grant support by the United Way of Greater Kansas City:
We’re further grateful to so many partners for their generosity and vision. These are too numerous to list, but at this time we would especially like to name the Marguerite Casey Foundation and Daniel Gould, our program officer there. The Marguerite Casey Foundation has just made a generous two-year funding commitment to Trust Neighborhoods. This is our largest donation to date, brings us closer to our full fundraising goal for this year, and is part of the Casey Foundation’s commitment to a more just economy that prioritizes the needs of underrepresented and excluded communities. We’re excited to have such a thoughtful partner in this work at a key moment in our growth.
We also have our Trust Neighborhoods board, which has been there for us on celebratory days and hard days, and which we were fortunate to be all together with just a few months ago in Kansas City. Our independent board members are now Tony Salazar, co-founder of McCormack Baron Salazar; Tony Pickett, CEO of Grounded Solutions; Paul Bradley, founder of ROCUSA; and Miranda O’Connell, Senior Counsel at Builders Vision, who has just joined.
The Trust Neighborhoods Board and Terrell Jolly and Jesse Hawks from the Northeast Neighborhood Trust team in Kansas City, MO this May.
Then, finally, we have our team at Trust Neighborhoods! We’re now a small but mighty team of eight with the addition of our two newest members this year:
Cali Slepin has joined the team as a Senior Project Manager. Cali was previously at the National Housing Trust. She has extensive experience in the community development space and aims to continue seeding community power within the housing sphere.
Travis Melvin has joined the team as the Director of Finance. Travis was previously at Trammell Crow Company. He grew up in public housing, which shaped his commitment to understanding all aspects of real estate finance and is excited to apply these skills to a purpose-driven mission.
Four years and a day ago, we had no official employees, no MINTs, no Trust Stewardship Committee members, no carpenters hammering away, no AC crew out on a hot day, or property manager out shoveling after a winter storm, no one going home to a MINT as a place they can feel secure in.
How far we’ve come in four years, and how far we want to go from here.
Thank you for being along for the journey.
We suppose we should add: we also have 1,100 newsletter subscribers, and that includes you. Thank you.
A reminder as you share and support our work - you can also show your Trust Neighborhoods pride with our first new swag in years! Navy blue Trust Neighborhoods sweatshirts are available in a range of sizes at cost. Order here.
May Trust Neighborhood continue to grow. Happy 4 years. Dr. Ruth White, East Colfax Corridor MINT TSC.